PIA Press Release2006/10/02

DPWH Ifugao says no way to graft and corruption

LAGAWE, Ifugao (2 October) -- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) here said graft and corruption can never be committed by the said agency and the contractors themselves.

Engr. Maximo Orezar, Engr. III, the Chief of the Planning and Design Section and the Officer In Charge of the DPWH-Ifugao said since his employment in 1981, he never experienced or observed and case of graft and corruption in this office. All projects were implemented based on specification and program of work, Orezar said.

Orezar is referring to the regular infrastructure projects which he is handling. Regular infra projects are those projects funded by the national government.

Projects should be implemented as per planning specification and they should be monitored so that there is check and balance whether the said project is implemented or not. He added that if implemented, the inspectorate team wherein a personnel from the Commission On Audit (COA) is a member, will check if the program of work has been followed.

He explained that in the event that there are anomalies committed in the implementation of the project, the concerned contractor will immediately remove and replace (R and R) the project. He said there are some cases of R and R in the province in the past years. This is an indication that we are sincere in our functions as implementers, he added.

Orezar said projects in the province are being prepared by the district office then submitted for approval and funding to their Central Office. The district office prepares the Medium Term Investment Plan basing on priority projects of the province, he said.

He mentioned that they cover national roads and bridges here and the budget for 2006 is P9,330,000.00. The national roads are from the boundary of Nueva Vizcaya-Ifugao-Mt.Province; Banaue-Hungduan-Tinoc; Banaue-Mayoyao-Aguinaldo and Jucnction Potia â€" Paracelis.

Out of the said funds, P1.7M is allotted for the Hapid bridge;P1.6M for the construction of the flood control; P5M-opening of the Banaue Lista-Hungduan-Tinoc Road;P500,000-Lamut River control downstream and P500,000.00 for the reconstruction of Lawig Pieza River Control.

Meanwhile, Engr.Juanito Ballogan, Engr.II and the Chief of the Maintenance Division supported what Engr. Orezar said. Ballogan who has been with the DPWH since 1985 said there was no case of graft and corruption being filed against the department.

This is so because there are monitoring teams going around the implemented projects to on a quarterly basis to check on the said projects. We have the quality Assurance Unit from the Central Office, the Regional Office and from our district who conduct regular monitoring in all our projects, he said. We also have personnel from the Commission On Audit who conducts post audit after the project has been completed he added.

He also said that if these monitoring teams will find out that there is anomaly then they will notify the project engineer to call the attention of the contractor to refund the amount which will be computed by the COA. So far there was no case like this, Ballogan said.

Ballogan further said that there is a system that will also evaluate the contractors and that is Contractor Project Evaluation system (CPES). The said system will evaluate the contractors if they are qualified or not. (PIA-Ifugao) [top]